Potluck Pitch-In

Three weeks before the wedding of Ron and Justine, The Colonel and I made a trial-run, half-batch of the Creole Red Beans and Carolina Purlow Rice that we wanted to take to the wedding reception potluck. It was so very delicious and would be perfect to take as a dish for the potluck. 

The Colonel found the recipe on line from Sense and Edibility. Once we knew that the recipe was a winner, The Colonel began getting the ingredients in order (for a full batch) so that they would be easy to transport for the 16-hour drive from Florida to Missouri when the time came. First he bought the bacon and andouille sausage, cut it up and froze it. Next, he got together all of the dried herbs and spices and put them in a sealed, glass jar. He sorted the red beans and sealed them in a 2-gallon zip lock bag. The Colonel would buy the fresh ingredients, onion, green bell pepper, celery, garlic, jalapeno and tomato paste from a store when we arrived in Sainte Genevieve. He measured out the dried rice and put that in a zip lock bag as well. 

We wanted to put our potluck dishes in something nice. I suggested terrines. We visited our local Goodwill store and to our amazement, found two terrines right off. They would be perfect. One of them had what looked like a crack in it. When we got them home, we filled the "cracked" one with water and left it in the sink overnight. No leaks! We also purchased serving spoons from the local dollar store. We had no intention of bringing the terrines or serving spoons back to Florida. 

Time to hit the road...we packed the truck and especially made sure we had all the bean and rice fixings with us and our favorite pot to cook them in. We also packed our crockpot (and bought a smaller one for the rice at a Walmart near Ste. Gen.). Not knowing if our Air B&B would have a sharp knife and cutting board, The Colonel also packed those. 

We stopped for the night about 5 hours outside of Ste. Gen. When we gassed up the truck the next morning, we also purchased a couple of bottles of water...it was time to start soaking the beans. The Colonel opened the huge zip lock bag and poured the water over the dried beans. The bag was then placed in a large plastic bowl with a lid. 

We arrived in Ste. Gen. and checked into our Air B&B on Thursday. We would begin cooking the beans that evening after we had dinner at a little restaurant down the street from us. We wanted to cook the beans then, because as we all know, beans, soups and stews taste better when they have a day to meld together all their yumminess. 

Time to start the beans...The Colonel began to sauté the bacon and sausage.

Then came the vegetables.

In went the soaked beans, herbs and spices and the water.

The beans cooked until they were tender. It was time to cool them down so that we could put them in the little, college fridge in the kitchen. I suggested we fill the sink with ice and put the bean soup back into the big plastic bowl that was used to soak the beans in and put the bowl into the ice-filled sink. That did the trick. Soon the beans were cool enough to put in the fridge. The fridge needed a little help to keep the beans cold enough, so we put the ice in the sink into a zip lock bag and set that bag on top of the plastic bowl in the fridge. Perfect. Now to let them meld until Saturday morning.

Saturday morning arrived and it was time to get the beans warmed up for the wedding reception. The  Colonel woke up at 6 am to start the heating up process. He put the cold beans in our large crock pot and put it on high. We stirred them occasionally. While the beans warmed, The Colonel began cooking his rice.

The rice recipe was a purlow style (a rice that starts with a flavorful base). The Colonel chose to use four rashers (a thin slice of bacon), boiled in three cups of water. Once the rashers were completely cooked, they were removed and the 1-1/2 cups of rice was cooked in the bacon flavored water.

When the rice was done, The Colonel transferred it to the small crockpot to keep it warm.

We took our crockpots of red beans and rice to the house where the wedding reception would be later and plugged them in to keep everything warm. We had our two Goodwill terrines with us too and two large serving spoons.

When it was time to set out our dishes for the reception, The Colonel spooned the red beans into one of the terrines. It looked like an old 18th century terrine. Perfect. 

The rice went into the other terrine.

The Colonel made signs for the red beans and rice. He even put a QR code on the bean sign that once scanned, would send you to the recipe he used. One of the other guests loved the beans and told us she scanned for the recipe. That pleased The Colonel very much.

All of the food we partook of at the potluck was delicious but I must say, I think The Colonel's red beans and rice were the most delicious and I am not just saying that because he made them (okay, well, maybe just a little).